Category Archives: Sustainable Energy

Schumann Frequency

c = λ × f λ = c / f = c × T f = c / λ
Wave frequency in Hz = 1/s and wavelength in nm = 10−9 m
frequency = f and wavelength λ

A 7.43 Hz wave is 40348917.63122477 meters (132378338.68512061 feet) in length.
This means that the length of wire to construct a quarter wave antenna would have to measure 10087229.4078061925 meters (33094584.6712801525 feet) 6267.91 miles in length.

There has to be an easier way than hoisting a satellite into space….

Pendulum Power

Thinking about the first experiment in Jeff Feddersen’s Sustainable Energy class, I repeated (though not exactly) an experiment of Michael Faraday’s originally conducted in 1831.  

It was his observation that by varying a magnetic field over time, an electric field would be generated.  This phenomenon came to be known as the law of (electromagnetic) induction.   The two videos below use LEDs, a coil of wire, jumper wires, and a large magnet hanging on a string as a pendulum.[quicktime]http://www.terezakis.org/itp/video/led-double-4-blog.mov[/quicktime]
I have a few more eighteenth century concepts I would like to physically review in order to prepare for my midterm project.

I couldn’t quite do the math on the setup in the videos as I didn’t know the coil length. The voltage was pretty high – 7.5 – 8.1 Volts. As expected it was not enough power to be able to drive a small motor.

The next tests will use a capacitor.

[quicktime]http://www.terezakis.org/itp/video/led-strip.mov[/quicktime]
Peter Terezakis
ITP
Tisch School of the Arts
http://www.terezakis.com

Magnetic fields

Magnetic Fields

[cvg-video videoId=’2′ width=’480′ height=’360′ mode=’playlist’ /]

The NASA computer animation illustrates the Earth’s space storm shield in action and shows our planet’s magnetic fields as a dynamic system.

The solar wind, a thin, high-velocity electrified gas, or plasma, blows constantly from the Sun at an average speed of 250 miles per second (400 kilometers/sec). In the animation this is represented as a stream of yellow particles flowing from the Sun. The solar wind impacts the Earth’s magnetic field, represented by the blue lines. As the solar wind flows past the Earth’s magnetic field, it generates enormous electric currents that heat Earth’s space storm shield, which is a layer within the ionosphere (Earth’s electrically charged outer atmosphere). Satellite observation has shown that this causes electrically charged oxygen atoms (oxygen ions) to be ejected from the ionosphere into space.

The expelled oxygen ions are represented by the green particle streams. The ejected oxygen ions gain tremendous speed as they leave the atmosphere, become trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field and ultimately encircle the Earth, where they form a billion-degree plasma cloud around the planet, represented by the red cloud. The blue doughnut shape represents the high-speed flow of these particles around the Earth.

The red ‘ring of fire’ around the Earth’s polar regions represents the contribution of the particles to the aurora (the northern and southern lights).

This is part of the mechanism by which earth is constantly bombarded by charged particles from the sun as we travel through space and time. It’s as if we are living our our lives on a component of an electrostatic generator whose scale defies comprehension.

Peter Terezakis
ITP
Tisch School of the Arts
http://www.terezakis.com

[contact_form]

Lenz’s Law –

When Jeff Feddersen showed our class a demonstration of power generation, I was impressed by the visible effects of Lenz’s law when an electrical load was placed on the hand-cranked generator.

” Lenz’s law states that the current induced in a circuit due to a change in the magnetic field is so directed as to oppose the change in flux or to exert a mechanical force opposing the motion.” – Heinrich Lenz, 1834

We are surrounded by this effect – and the work that it does.

The past week I have reading and visualizing about the physics and models of magnetic waves, induction, electro-magnetic fields (EMF), magnetic moments, which brought me to Lenz’s law.
The subject is complex and filled with calculus the nuances of which are difficult to comprehend.
Looking at the “Cliff Notes” version, the concept is straight forward:

Field energy

The electric field stores energy. The energy density of the electric field is given by:

In general the incremental amount of work per unit volume δW needed to cause a small change of magnetic field δB is:
    \delta W = \mathbf{H}\cdot\delta\mathbf{B}.

Conservation of momentum

Momentum must be conserved in the process, so if q_1 is pushed in one direction, then q_2 ought to be pushed in the other direction by the same force at the same time. However, the situation becomes more complicated when the finite speed of electromagnetic wave propagation is introduced (see retarded potential). This means that for a brief period of time, the total momentum of the two charges is not conserved, implying that the difference should be accounted for by momentum in the fields … Maxwell called this the “electromagnetic momentum” … Wikipedia .

Since taking apart my first motor to pull out the magnets when I was a child, to looking at motors today, every model that I have ever seen – in person or on paper – has either the magnet or the coil as a stationary object.

What if the magnetic resistance due to induction was allowed to self-optimize/be reduced within a given system? Aside from conserving momentum, would EMF be reduced, stay the same, or increase?

I’m thinking that I would like to design, construct, and analyze, an experiment and its outcome.

Peter Terezakis
ITP
Tisch School of the Arts
http://www.terezakis.com

[contact_form]

What If…

Schumann Resonance - Earth as a Capacitor
What if we think of our planet as a spherical capacitor?

Two concentric plates, separated
by a dielectric, moving through
the volume of space.

Formula to determine the
capacitance of a sphere

Using this model, earth ground would be our planet, the insulating dielectric would be the atmosphere, and the second capacitive component (plate) would be the ionosphere.
Capacitors often arc/leak/discharge on the work bench:
An average bolt of negative lightning carries a current of 40 kA (kiloampreas) although some bolts can be up to 120 kA, and transfers a charge of 5 coulombs and 500 MJ

Which would mean that there should be a change in electrical potential as we leave earth ground/change observational altitude:

Alessandro Volta’s measurements of electrical potential above the earth. Confirmed in 1908

I know it’s more than a little whacky, and way over-simplified, but I keep thinking about the dynamic differences in electrical potential between moving bodies of air and earth ground as well as between the ionosphere and the earth.

Tesla patent 512340

I can’t help but wonder since there is enough electromotive force to operate an electroscope, bias a MOSFET, might there not be a way to construct an antenna to at least charge a battery, if not power a city, or the planet, using the power which surrounds us on a planetary and/or a cosmic scale?
Traveling through magnetic fieldsl
If the answers to these questions were easy, or already out there, Big Oil would be out of business, and they are not.
tesla-645576

The scale and scope of this line of thinking is mind-boggling and very interesting to me. There is a  recurring common symmetry in Tesla’s drawings, NASA imagery, and models of basic physics which I find intellectually compelling and aesthetically satisfying.  How cool would it be to continually charge super-capacitors through a system of antennas, powering our cities and our homes, by the EMF naturally generated by nature?

Peter Terezakis
ITP
Tisch School of the Arts
http://www.terezakis.com

Moving plate capacitive discharge photo from NASA

Clarendon Bell

Some batteries last longer than others. This one has been running since at least 1840, possibly fifteen years earlier.

Clarendon Bell – running since 1840 on same dry pile batteries.

More on the Oxford Electric Bell or Clarendon Dry Pile – one of the longest running science experiments in the world.

More on the battery:
Zamboni/Duluc Dry Pile

Oxford Electric Bell

Interestingly, the Clarendon/Oxford Bell is a permutation of a Lightning Bell invented in 1742 and used by Ben Franklin in 1752.

Time to change the energy paradigm

Tesla, Colorado Springs
If we use fuel to get our power, we are living on our capital and exhausting it rapidly. This method is barbarous and wantonly wasteful and will have to be stopped in the interest of coming generations.” – Nikola Tesla, 1900

Please Enable Javascript for this <a href=”http://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil”>Crude Oil</a> widget to work

Between Tesla’s comment and the data in the widgets, we need to develop another method for supplying power to the world.

Peter Terezakis

Tisch School of the Arts
http://www.terezakis.com

[contact_form]